April Sawers smiled as shefilled her car's gas tank at an Orlando station this week.

She attributed her good mood to the steadily dropping price of fuel, which has dipped to its lowest level in four months, according to AAA, the motorists' club.

"I'm excited," said Sawers, 34, of Winter Park as she fueled her Mazda 5 minivan. "I wish it had happened in April when I went to Georgia and was driving on my honeymoon."

The news may get better still for Sawers and other Central Florida drivers. Senior petroleum analyst Gregg Laskoski predicted that the price would fall to less than $3 before the end of the year at some gas stations.

"Once Labor Day is behind us, you'll see a number of stations in Orlando that will be below $3 a gallon," said Laskoski, who works for GasBuddy.com.

There are several reasons for the price drop, experts said.

Domestic supplies are especially high. Gulf Coast refineries, which supply Central Florida, on Wednesday were operating at nearly 95 percent of capacity, according to GasBuddy.com.

"We have an energy boom going on in the United States," Laskoski said. "We've got a great deal of production."

That ample supply and tepid global demand have pushed the price of crude oil below $100 per barrel, experts said.

In America, people are driving even less than usual after the July 4 holiday. The long-term trend also shows the aging population is not driving as much and younger people aren't buying cars the way they once were, Laskoski said.

"When you have a strong supply at a low price and a relatively flat demand, that works for the consumer," he said.

The result: The average price of regular gasoline in Orlando on Wednesday was $3.31 — a nickel less than a week ago, about a quarter less than a month ago and 20 cents less than a year ago.

"This year, we're seeing a more dramatic decline," Laskoski said. "It's been occurring for pretty much the entire month."

A few years ago, drivers were bracing themselves as the price of gas rose, then hovered a few cents below the $4 mark. The peak price nationwide in 2011 was $3.98, AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said. The price hit $3.94 in 2012.

In 2008, the nationwide average broke that barrier, peaking at $4.08 per gallon, AAA statistics show.

For now, though, Orlando and Tampa have the lowest average gas prices in the state, according to GasBuddy.com.

The current downward trend could be broken if a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast or moreunrest erupts in oil-producing regions, Jenkins said. Barring those scenarios, he predicts pump prices in the low $3 range for the rest of the summer — not quite as low as what Laskoski forecasts.

There could be a brief bump in September when refineries undergo maintenance to prepare for the annual switch to winter-blend gas, Jenkins said. But prices are expected to fall again in the last quarter of 2014.